there's going to need to be some buy-in from the senate minority leader, republican mitch mcconnell. so that's where things stand. and president obama is actually hopeful that something could still be pulled off. listen. >> nobody can get 100% of what they want. and this is not simply a contest between parties in terms of who looks good and who doesn't. call me a hopeless optimist. but i actually still think we can get it done. >> reporter: now, of course, if the senate were to pass something and reconvene on december 27th, don, it would also then need to pass the house. but the expectation is that whatever would be worked out in the senate, if it is, would pass the house hopefully not just with republican support, but it would need democratic support, as well. and just to be clear, the thing that president obama and speaker boehner were working towards was a much bigger package, trying to deal with deficit reduction that would have dealt with these tax hikes, spending cuts, trying to work out a plan for entitlement reform and tax reform. what's now being worked out is to avert those ta